in awe of the inspired citizen

Please Sir, Can I Have Some More

“in Kenya, when that inevitable power cut happens about once or twice every 1 to 2 weeks, there is a number you can call. After A couple of rings, a human being picks up and informs you of the precise point where the problem has occurred; And an estimate of how long it will take to repair is given. Nigerians can only dream.”

Bad news sells, good news sells badly; so many may not have heard of Nigeria’s most positive achievement over the last few weeks. According to news reports, electricity generation has hit a long unheard of peak of over 4600 mega watts (MW). And indeed, a number of people (at least within Lagos) have confirmed. They have light.

For those who have been fortunate enough to witness a discernible improvement in their electricity supply, these numbers might seem impressive, and even laudable. They are not. For most people across the country, 4,600MW remains exactly what it is. Pitiful.

For those that are connected to the grid, power continues to flutter in and out. Homes continue to be without power for whole days at a time. When there is light, it can come and go several times in a single day; everyday. To be sure, there are good days where one is able to get work done from morning to night because they have been in receipt of a full 24 hours of power. And on these days, we are immensely grateful to the powers that be. But it is a sign of just how desperate things are that a few extra hours of power is worthy of abundant jubilation.

The dire state of Nigeria’s electricity situation was pronounced earlier this year when the country fell under the grip of a manufactured fuel scarcity. As most people were plunged into a water, light, fuel scenario that took us depressingly back to the early 1990s, it became clear that the framework of Nigeria’s archaically grid centred electricity generation was doing the entire country a grievous disservice.

In electricity production, Nigeria ranks 67 behind Libya, Iraq, and Bangladesh; way behind South Africa; and light years in India’s rear.

in 2000, hydroelectric power still accounted for 38.2% of total power generation. By 2011, this figure had fallen to a mere 20.9% … the highest value hydroelectric contributed to total output was 86.97% in 1974.

This is an issue that goes far beyond the mundane difficulties ordinary Nigerians face in living a life at half capacity and in darkness. It is an issue that is even beyond the productive needs of a country that is seeking to grow its manufacturing, and agricultural industries. In a world in which we have so misused our planet and everything in it, and despite the grossly unfair fact that climate change will disproportionately affect a continent whose contribution to it has been minimal—for the sake of Nigerians and the entire world, the world’s 7th most populous country is going to have to start carrying its renewable energy weight.